Remarks in Independence at the Liberty Bell Luncheon

Mr. Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Weatherford, and distinguished guests and friends:

I have been looking around over this meeting, and I think I could almost call every one of you by your first name, and tell nearly every one of you just how old you are. Some of you wouldn't like that, I'm afraid.

It is a pleasure to be here. I appreciate most highly the action of the Eagles in what they have done. It is a wonderful thing, and I will see if I can't get the arrangements made so that it will do the most good.

You can't understand just how a man feels when somebody else dies for him. I have got the greatest bunch of people in that line that anybody ever had. They do their duty--and that was amply demonstrated.

I am more than pleased to see all of you, you to help accept this memento from the French people and the city of Annecy. I know that we will always look at it with pleasure, and remember what it stands for. It stands for what we believe in, the right of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as set out by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. We have not varied from the dogma since it was written. We are trying now to get that right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everybody in this world.

We have attained the position which no other country in the world has ever had. We have not yet accepted the full responsibility of that position because it is new to us. We are really a young nation, as generations count, but we are coming into our responsibility. You know, with great power goes great responsibility. We must exercise that responsibility along with the power that the Lord has given us, or we neglect to do what we are intended to do. We ran out on that responsibility in 1920. We can't do it this time, and we are not going to.

I am more than pleased to see all of you, and to be with you. I wish I could sit down and talk to every one of you. I see Democrats and Republicans and whatnots and everybody else here. I wish I could just talk with you about 15 minutes, I think I would get you all to vote the Democratic ticket.

We are going to have another meeting in a few minutes, and you will then have to listen to set speeches by the Secretary of the Treasury and the President of the United States, which will be broadcast to some 60-odd countries. You will be the center of the world here for about half an hour directly, and I hope that you won't be too entirely bored by what the Secretary of the Treasury has to say, but I am going to make you a good speech.